Arielle Elysse Gingerbread Recipe

Every holiday season, my girls and I make these yummy gingerbread cookies for Santa! It is easy, delicious, and a lot of fun to make. It is our annual family tradition to make every Christmas eve, so Santa gets freshly baked cookies with his hot cocoa right before he drops off our gifts and goes back to the north pole with our elves! We hope you enjoy making these cookies together as much as we do! Arielle & Elysse’s Gingerbread Cookies Recipe

Prep Time: 35 minutes Bake Time: 8-10 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes Yield: About 3 dozen (3-inch) cookies

Tools Needed: 1 medium saucepan 2 large mixing bowls Whisk Wooden spoon Parchment paper Cookie sheets (2 large or 4 small) Potholders

Ingredients: ¾ cup unsalted butter ¾ cup brown sugar ¾ cup molasses 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground ginger ¼ teaspoon allspice or cloves 1 large egg 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda 3 ¾ cups all purpose flour

Directions: Part 1 – Make the dough

1. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat.
2. Stir in brown sugar, molasses, salt and spices.
3. Take the sauce pan off the stove. Let it cool to lukewarm temperature.
4. Transfer the molasses mixture to a mixing bowl.
5. Beat in the (1) egg into the molasses mixture.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk the baking soda and baking powder into the flour.
7. Slowly stir these dry ingredients into the molasses mixture
8. Use a wooden spoon first and when it is cool to touch, kids love to use their hands to mix!
9. Divide the dough in half (kids love making two big balls!)
10. Pat each half into a thick rectangle (put on a small baking pan/cookie sheet)
11. Wrap each rectangle with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or more (important step) Make sure the dough is cold and thoroughly chilled before moving on to the next step. Part 2: Shape, bake and decorate! Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take out the chilled rectangle dough (one at a time) from the fridge. Lay parchment paper on your counter (big enough to cover your work surface). Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness. The thinner you do it, the crispier it gets. Use various cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Transfer the cut-out cookies to ungreased cookie sheets. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and cool completely before decorating. Decorate with royal icing.